Accountability Policies and Teacher Decision Making: Barriers to the Use of Data to Improve Practice

One assumption underlying accountability policies is that results from standardized tests and other sources will be used to make decisions about school and classroom practice. We explore this assumption using data from a longitudinal study of nine high schools nominated as leading practitioners of Continuous Improvement (CI) practices. We use the key beliefs underlying continuous improvementderived from educational applications of Deming's TQM modelsand organizational learning to analyze teachers' responses to district expectations that they would use data to assess their own, their colleagues', and their schools' effectiveness and to make improvements. The findings suggest that most teachers are willing, but they have significant concerns about the kind of information that is available and how it is used to judge their own and colleagues' performance. Our analysis reveals some cultural assumptions that are inconsistent with accountability policies and with theories of continuous improvement and organizational learning. We also identify barriers to use of testing and other data that help to account for the limited impacts.

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Debra IngramUniversity of MinnesotaE-mail AuthorDEBRA INGRAM is a research associate at the Center for Applied Research
and Educational Improvement in the University of Minnesota’s College of
Education and Human Development. Her research interests include school
change, the arts and learning, and teacher professional development.

Karen Seashore LouisUniversity of MinnesotaE-mail AuthorKAREN SEASHORE LOUIS is a professor in the Department of
Educational Policy and Administration at the University of Minnesota’s
College of Education and Human Development. Her research interests
include organizational theory, schools as workplaces, and leadership.
Recent publications include ‘‘A Culture Framework for Education: Defining
Quality Values for U.S. High Schools’’ with J. R. Detert and R. G. Schroeder
(Journal of School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 12, 2001), and ‘‘School
Improvement Processes and Practices: Professional Learning for Building
Instructional Capacity’’ with J. Spillane (in J. Murphy, Ed., Challenges of Leadership, 2002, Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of
Education, Chicago: University of Chicago).

Roger SchroederUniversity of MinnesotaROGER G. SCHROEDER is a professor and the Frank A. Donaldson Chair
in Operations Management in the Department of Operations and Management
Science at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.
His research interests include quality improvement and linking
operations and business strategy. Recent publications include ‘‘A Framework
for Linking Culture and Improvement Initiatives in Organizations’’
with J. R. Detert and J. J. Mauriel (Academy of Management Review, 25, 2000)
and Operations Management: Contemporary Concepts and Cases (Irwin/McGraw
Hill, 2nd ed., 2004).